1. Technical Field
The present embodiment relates to an identification apparatus and a connectivity determination apparatus for an optical passive device such as a dispersion compensator for use in an optical communications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-60577, in order to provide a long-distance transmission of a wavelength-multiplexed optical signal in a long-distance optical communications network, a dispersion compensator is used to compensate for an optical signal wave distortion caused by a transmission line optical fiber. In recent years, a virtually imaged phased array (VIPA) variable dispersion compensator capable of collectively compensating for a plurality of waves has also been used as this dispersion compensator. However, in terms of cost and reliability, many dispersion compensation fibers (DCF) are still in use today. The DCF is selectively used according to the transmission distance and the transmission line fiber type.
The DCF is a passive device without requiring a power supply and is excellent in reliability as a dispersion compensation product, but maintenance is required. As for a product to which power is supplied, it is possible to identify and manage the product by installing a nonvolatile storage medium in the product and storing the product identification information in the storage medium. However, the method of identifying a product using such a storage medium cannot be applied to the DCF, and only a method of checking a label attached on a surface of the product can be used to identify the DCF. For that reason, it is troublesome to perform maintenance work on a DCF provided in a remote transmission apparatus.